CLIFTON PARK >> They are taken for granted by many, those who ride them and those who see them pass by. The big yellow school buses lumbering down Saratoga County roads stop every so often to either pick up or drop off school students.

From September to June they are a part of many people’s daily commute. Then they seemingly vanish only to reappear two months later like a heavily tanned vacationer returning from a cruise. One hardly thinks about them until a school budget vote includes a proposition for new replacements and the price tag makes one took twice.

But just as teachers and administrators are integral parts of any school district, the transportation department and the people in them are a vital if unnoticed cog in the educational wheel.

The Shenendehowa Central School District has the second largest school district-owned bus fleet in the Capital District. It is second in total buses owned, behind the Capital District Transportation Authority. Last month voters. in the Shen district approved spending $1.8 million to buy 19 new buses, bringing the total fleet to 202.

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Shen’s fleet travels 2.1 million miles each year bringing 10,533 students to more than 80 schools on a daily basis. For those who think summer must be a down time, Shen runs 60 to 70 buses a day each summer.

”We run more buses in the summer than some school districts run during the school year,” said the district’s former director of transportation, Dave Christopher.

As a way of comparison, the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District with 4,200 students, has 83 buses. The transportation department there runs 119 routes and has a $3.2 million budget

The CDTA has 234 fixed route buses covering Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, and Rensselaer counties, a 2,300-square-mile area. The company has 650 employees and an annual budget of $78.4 million.

Christopher retired shortly before the end of the school year after 36.5 years in the business. He came to Shen in 2000 after heading a department with 23 buses. Not one to sit around, he intends to keep busy within the industry.

Shen’s transportation department is like a small city. Anywhere from 225 to 230 people each day keep the district’s buses safely up and running and routed properly. The fluctuation in the number of people employed is due to calls for substitute drivers.

One reason the buses have so many non-Shen school runs is because of the district’s location. It is surrounded by Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Saratoga Springs.

“Because we’re within 15 miles of those cities we’re obligated to transport those kids to the non-public schools,” Christopher said.

Shen routes its buses so there is a seat ready for any child who wants one, even those within walking distance of the schools.

“State law says we’re only responsible for transporting students beyond two miles from an elementary school and three for high school,” Christopher said. “But this district has long said we’ll offer a ride to anyone who wants one. The voters accept that when they vote on the budget each year.”

The district’s Transportation Department is about $10 million.

“Even at the height of the recession districts may have tweaked their routes or dropped some late buses but nobody cut back on picking up students based on their locations,” Christopher said. “It won’t happen. Voters want that service. They need it. Some parents are off to work before the bell rings.”

The Shen bus garage is a busy place all year. And one of the major components of the department is its two person routing squad. During the school year ,Shen sends 20 to 25 buses to non-public schools. The pick up and drop off point for their runs is Gowana Middle School.

“Our high school buses make three stops each before they leave the campus.” Christopher said. “They drop off kids at Gowana for the pickup, head to High School West then on to High School east, or vice versa depending on the routing.”

And there are extracurricular activity buses. October is a big month in the fall as is May in the spring.

“Go on the Northway any weekend in May and I’ll bet you can’t get to Albany without passing a school bus,” he said.

In the summer months, Shen sends 60 to 70 buses out each day to handle routes for the 12-month special needs students, a literacy program, and the community’s various summer camps. Most of the camps just contract for their day trips, but the town of Halfmoon contracts about 20 buses each summer to run routes for pickup and drop offs for its summer camp program.

“And the class sites for the special needs students may change (in the summer) from the regular year sites,” Christopher said. “Some may go to BOCES during the school year but in summer they might go to Rensselaer because that’s where they found the space.”

Christopher said winter months can pose extremely difficult problems. Unlike a personal auto, where the owner can call a cab or a friend for a ride if the cold has caused car trouble, a school transportation department must be ready to go when school starts.

Over the 2013 December holiday break, Christopher and his department had 50 buses that would not start when tested the Friday before classes resumed.

“The mechanics spent all day that Friday in the cold getting them started and came back on Sunday to make sure they would start,” he said. “On Monday we had our bus fleet running. The fleet should be transparent and the service should be there when needed. No one should see all the work that goes into it.”

The work Christopher referred to meant preparing and repairing the fleet when needed as well as making sure the buses pass all state inspections.

Each bus is inspected twice a year, and with a fleet the size of Shen’s, that means an inspector is on the site twice a week inspecting six buses each time.

“We have 13 mechanics who do a phenomenal job,” Christopher said. “Other than warranty work we do all our own repairs.”

The garage has two people doing preventative maintenance, two doing body work, three on inspection issues, one doing brakes, one doing engine work and a couple more doing “hot bay” issues like turn signals, head lights, wipers, and tires.

Inspection defects are cited in three levels. An “A” defect means a bus must be taken out of commission. A “B” defect means the bus must be repaired before students are allowed on it. And a “C” level defect means an issue must be fixed before the next inspection.

“Last year we had a 99.49 percent pass rate,” Christopher said. “In 430 inspections we had one “A” defect. Our mechanics take their jobs seriously. Safety is a priority with them. They want to maintain a safe fleet.”

Christopher described the position of transportation director as a niche job, one that’s hard to fill. In his view any person in the job needs people skills, leadership skills and management skills.

“I think the service we provide is a value to the district and we do it efficiently,” he said. “We have an amazing staff of very dedicated people and that helps us in a lot of ways, including costs.”